Dave Escape Rooms - "Rita's Cult Following"

Photos provided by Dave Escape Rooms

Company: Dave Escape Rooms

Game: Rita's Cult Following

Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧

Language: English

Type of Game: Digital Escape Game 💻

Genre: Mystery

Date Played: 3/24/2021

Difficulty (based on 6 players): 7.5/10

Size of Team: 3-6 Players (Recommended age 12+)

Time: 60 Minutes

Price: £14.99

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We were sent here to investigate the disappearance of the famous actress Rita Vasconcellos. She just vanished in the middle of a performance at the Palm Street Theatre. Who could be behind this?

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One game code can be used for your entire team. We suggest a Zoom meeting so you can communicate with each other. The entire game is played over the company's own digital platform. We're able to see each other's cursors but can search and look at items freely on our own. Only one player needs to input an answer for the result to reflect for the entire team.

The graphics were beautiful. It felt like we're on a movie set. The lighting in each area made the scenes dream-like. It was really pleasant to look at it.

I wouldn't waste anytime in this game. The timer starts to count down once one player presses the "start" button and you only have 60 minutes to complete the game. The hint system is a nudging style system but it's also timed (update 4/5/21: the company has shortened the wait till to 1 minute based on our feedback). I would advise using it immediately once you feel like you're stuck as the first hint pretty much felt useless and we had to wait for a few minutes before we were able to receive a more in depth hint. Since this game is timed, you really don't have much time to wait around.

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This digital game really mimics what you would feel in a real life escape room. With the rigid timer and hint system, our team actually felt that nerve-wracking moment as we escaped with just seconds on the clock.

I love the different types of puzzles that the game was able to incorporate (especially the mixture of tactile and logic puzzles). The only issue with that was that the puzzles were linear and with a multi-player interface, it didn't work well with inputting a tactile puzzle that could potentially get players stuck for a long time. This happened to our group and besides the one player that was working on the puzzle, the rest of us were just waiting around. It would've been great if the game added more "search and find" elements to keep the rest of the teammates busy.

My favorite puzzle was towards the end. I haven't seen a digital game able to translate this type of puzzle (which we've seen used in real life escape rooms) to online yet. It was quite clever and definitely fitting to the theme of the game.

🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂

I think I would have enjoyed this game a lot more if it wasn't a timed game (update 4/5/21: At the time of the game, we didn't know that you'll receive a bonus 10 times when 60 minute runs out to complete the mission and after that runs out, you'll have unlimited time until you finish the game. In that case, it's up to you if you like to play the game in the normal competitive way or take your time to actually enjoy the game). There were a good amount of reading and story line that I wasn't able to appreciate because we're too focused on getting out. Also with the linear aspect of the game, we would recommend playing with no more than 3 people. I would love to see more cooperative type of puzzle where the group could interactive on together. This was the first digital game where the graphics felt top notch and I just wanted to stay longer than the mere 60 minutes. Although the cinematic train ride was quite a beautiful ending scene.

𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤❜ ℙ.𝕀.𝕤❜ 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤

RJ G.

Pros Inspired and polished graphics Sound quality was above average Cons An overabundance of red herrings The inventory system was underused This escape game was a joy to look at. The backdrops, notes, and objects were all high quality graphics that really made the room pop. The animations, effects, and sound made the room come alive. The puzzles themselves were sensible and fit the theme well. While I can understand the use of some red herrings to distract solvers, this room went way beyond any line in the sand. Not only were there excessive notes and interactive features, but there was even a translation table and message that was purely a distraction. Overall, despite it's problems, the room was still fun. I would recommend game to more experienced players who are looking for new and uniquely themed games.

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Jacqueline G.

I was so excited for this escape room, the theme seemed right up my alley. I thought the art style chosen for the backgrounds were phenomenal. I really enjoyed exploring the rooms. There was a puzzle that took us FAR too long to solve. I think some of us were too dedicated to finishing something else to do than putting our heads together to figure out that puzzle that actually turned out to be much simpler than we made it out to be. After we figured that out the rest of the puzzles fell together quite quickly. One part of the game had a few too many red herrings for my liking. The puzzles were diverse and fun but the hints didn't help us move forward enough that we got to fully enjoy the experience (having to wait for another hint when the last hint was unhelpful was especially bothersome). I was a bit disappointed with one of the puzzles because it felt like we had to do some deciphering but that was just a decoy and then once the actual trigger was performed what I was working on all disappeared. It felt a bit demoralized. Overall I think the theme, puzzles, and graphics were top-notch but the hint system and creator expectations vs actual user thought process was misaligned and needs a few tweaks.

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Ashleigh M. & Keiran M.

The game was visually very engaging. There was a nice variety of puzzle types that encouraged collaboration among teammates. Overall, it did a good job of simulating the reward of the "unlocking" experience that you would find in an in-person escape room. Even accounting for some stumbles along the way, completing the puzzle in the time allotted was challenging but realistic.

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(If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)

Disclosure: We thank Dave Escape Rooms for providing us with a sample of the game. Although complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.

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